Agnolo Bronzino: Medici Court Artist in Context. Edited by. Andrea M. Gáldy

Transcription

1 Agnolo Bronzino

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3 Agnolo Bronzino: Medici Court Artist in Context Edited by Andrea M. Gáldy

4 Agnolo Bronzino: Medici Court Artist in Context, Edited by Andrea M. Gáldy This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright 2013 by Andrea M. Gáldy and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): , ISBN (13):

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations... vii Acknowledgements... xi List of Abbreviations... xiii Foreword... xv Vanessa Hall Smith Introduction... xvii Antonio Natali Chapter Abstracts... xix Chapter One... 1 Style and Dress: An Interdisciplinary Study of the Female Portraits by Agnolo Bronzino Janet Cox-Rearick and Mary Westerman Bulgarella Chapter Two Bronzino s Portrait of Maria Salviati Robert B. Simon Chapter Three Identity and Likeness: Bronzino s Medici Portraits Andrea M. Gáldy Chapter Four Bronzino s Corpus between Ancient Models and Modern Masters Bette Talvacchia Chapter Five Bronzino and His Friends: The Medici-Toledo Tapestries Robert G. La France

6 vi Table of Contents Chapter Six Altered Context: Bronzino's Descent of Christ into Limbo Townsend Zeigler Chapter Seven Towards a Postmodernist Bronzino? Robert W. Gaston Bibliography Authors Biographies Index

7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: The portraits examined in our study, illustrated to scale (source: Mary Westerman Bulgarella): A) Cleveland Museum of Art, Young Lady; B) M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Maria Salviati?; C) Detroit Institute of Arts, Costanza da Sommaia; D) Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Eleonora of Toledo?; E) Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale, Pisa, Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Francesco; F) Národní Galerie, Prague, Eleonora of Toledo; G) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Young Woman with Her Little Boy; H) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Eleonora of Toledo; I) Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Laura Battiferri; J) Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Eleonora of Toledo; K) Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Lady in a Red Dress with Her Little Dog; L) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Lucrezia Pantiatichi; M) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Bia di Cosimo de Medici; N) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni; O) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Maria de Medici; P) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Young Girl with Book; Q) Windsor Castle State Apartments, Lady in Green. Figure 2: Table of portraits investigated (source: Mary Westerman Bulgarella). Figure 3: A) Národní Galerie, Prague, Eleonora of Toledo; B) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Young Girl with a Book; C) Cleveland Museum of Art, Young Lady (source: A: The Yorck Project, Direct Media Publishing, ISBN ; B: The Yorck Project, Direct Media Publishing, ISBN ; C: Cleveland Museum of Art). Figure 4: Cleveland Museum of Art, Young Lady, details of the partlet (source: Cleveland Museum of Art). Figure 5: A) Detroit Institute of Arts, Costanza da Sommaia; B) Detail from Christ in Limbo altarpiece in the Museum of the Church of Santa Croce, Florence (source: A: Detroit Institute of Art; B: Mary Westerman Bulgarella). Figure 6: Traditionally attributed to Bronzino, here attributed to the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, Portrait of an Elderly Lady, San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums, Kress Collection (source: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco). Figure 7: Giorgio Vasari, Portrait of Maria Salviati, Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Sala di Giovanni delle Bande Nere (source: Alinari). Figure 8: Jacopo Carucci, called il Pontormo, Portrait of Maria Salviati with a Child, Baltimore, Walters Art Museum (source: Walters Art Museum). Figure 9: Formerly attributed to Bronzino, here attributed to the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, Portrait of an Elderly Lady with a Child, Present Location Unknown (source: author s photograph). Figure 10: Details of the Left Hands of Figure 6 (left) and Bronzino s Portrait of a Lady (Cassandra Bandini?), Turin, Galleria Sabauda (source: author s photograph).

8 viii List of Illustrations Figure 11: Here attributed to the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, Portrait of a Gentleman, Present Location Unknown (Formerly William Randolph Hearst Collection) (source: author s photograph). Figure 12: Here attributed to the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, Portrait of a Man, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum (source: Kunsthistorisches Museum). Figure 13: Formerly attributed to Francesco Salviati, here attributed to the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, Portrait of an Elderly Man and a Child, The James Philip Gray Collection, Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts (source: Springfield Museums, photography by David Stansbury). Figure 14: Traditionally attributed to Salviati and called a portrait of Francesco degli Albizzi, here attributed to the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, Portrait of a Bearded Man, museum purchase, , Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts (source: Worcester Art Museum). Figure 15: Bronzino, Portrait of a Lady in Red, here identified as Maria Salviati, Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut (source: Städelsches Kunstinstitut). Figure 16: Bronzino (workshop?), Cosimo I in Spiky Armour, after 1545, Uffizi deposit (source: Gabinetto Fotografico, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale, Florence). Figure 17: Francesco Salviati?, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere?, oil on panel, 65 x 45, c. 1545, Galleria Palatina (source: Gabinetto Fotografico, Soprintendenza, Florence). Figure 18: Gian Paolo Pace, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, oil on canvas, 97 x 89 cm, Uffizi Gallery, 1545 (source: Gabinetto Fotografico, Soprintendenza, Florence). Figure 19: Bronzino and workshop, Ritrattini, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere [A] and Cosimo I de Medici [B], oil on tin, c.16.5 x 13 cm, , Uffizi Gallery (source: Gabinetto Fotografico, Soprintendenza, Florence). Figure 20: Pontormo, Portrait of young Cosimo I de Medici, oil on wood, 47 x 31 cm, 1537, Galleria Palatina (source: Gabinetto Fotografico, Soprintendenza Florence). Figure 21: Bronzino, Ceiling of Eleonora s Chapel, Palazzo Vecchio (source: The Yorck Project, Direct Media Publishing, ISBN ). Figure 22: Detail of figure 21 (source: The Yorck Project, Direct Media Publishing, ISBN ). Figure 23: Benedetto and Giuliano da Maiano, Frieze of putti, Sagrestia delle Messe, Florence Cathedral (source: Archivio dell Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence). Figure 24: Bronzino, Andrea Doria as Neptune, Brera Museum (source: The Yorck Project, Direct Media Publishing, ISBN ). Figure 25: Statue of Military Hero, Chieti, Museo Archeologico dell Abruzzo (source: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici per l Abruzzo-Chieti). Figure 26: Bronzino (designer) and Jan Rost (weaver), Great Abundance, 1545, tapestry, Soprintendenza, Florence IA 540 (source: Scala / Art Resource, NY). Figure 27: Maerten van Heemskerck, detail of Panorama with the Abduction of

9 Agnolo Bronzino: Medici Court Artist in Context ix Helen amidst the Wonders of the Ancient World, 1535, oil on panel, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland (source and : The Walters Art Museum). Figure 28: Francesco Salviati, detail of The Triumph of Furius Camillus, 1545, fresco, Sala delle Udienze, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence (source: Scala / Art Resource, NY). Figure 29: Bronzino (designer) and Jan Rost (weaver), Spring, , tapestry, Soprintendenza, Florence IA 541 (source: Scala / Art Resource, NY). Figure 30: Bachiacca (designer) and Nicholas Karcher (weaver), detail of May from the series of the Months, , tapestry, Soprintendenza, Florence, IA 526 (source: Scala / Art Resource, NY). Figure 31: Agnolo Bronzino, The Descent of Christ into Limbo, 1552, oil on wood, 4.43 x 2.91 m. Museo di Santa Croce, Florence (source: Archivio dell Opera di Santa Croce, photo Antonio Quattrone). Figure 32: Francesco Salviati, Deposition from the Cross, 1548, oil on wood, c.4.43 x 2.91 m. Museo di Santa Croce, Florence (source: Townsend Zeigler with kind permission by the Archivio dell Opera di Santa Croce). Figure 33: Plan of the chapels in Santa Croce after Vasari s renovations in 1565, based on Hall, Renovation and Counter-Reformation (source: Kiki McCaslin).

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11 ABBREVIATIONS ASF Archivio di Stato, Florence BNCF Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze GM Guardaroba Medicea MP Mediceo del Principato

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13 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The organisers would like to begin by thanking the two curators Antonio Natali and Carlo Falciani for the exhibition Bronzino: Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici that was displayed from 24 September 2010 to 23 January 2011 at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. Their selection of a thought-provoking array of paintings, sculpture, and tapestries inspired the concept and content of the international conference that resulted in this publication. We would also like to extend our thanks to the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and its staff, under the direction of James Bradburne, for bringing the Renaissance palace to new life with a series of original exhibitions, concerts, book shops and a café in the courtyard. The conference would, however, never have happened, had it not been for the support of the British Institute of Florence, in particular the hard work of its former director Vanessa Hall Smith, of the library staff and the institute s administration. Our thanks go to all of them for making the organisation as smooth as possible. We would also like to thank Caitlin Sweeney for her help at the conference front desk and John Hoenig for kindly hosting the pre-conference reception. We are very grateful to the Society for Renaissance Studies for the conference grant they so generously provided. Finally, we would like to thank the speakers at the conference for excellent papers and spirited discussion with the delegates. The rationale of this conference was to have a mixture of Bronzino specialists exploring overlooked aspects of his work and specialists in related fields who became interested in Bronzino through serendipity and wished to contribute the results of their research. Since the conference papers worked so well together and created a virtual conversation among them that would have been a shame to interrupt, we decided only to include essays by the original speakers rather than to commission additional ones.

14 xiv Acknowledgements It has been our delight to work with CSP who have published the present volume and we would like to thank Amanda Millar and Soucin Yip-Sou for the beautiful book they have created for us and for you. Florence, August 2012 Andrea M. Gáldy and Townsend Zeigler

15 FOREWORD VANESSA HALL-SMITH When Andrea Gáldy first suggested holding a conference on Bronzino at the British Institute to coincide with the Palazzo Strozzi show, I had no inkling of how groundbreaking the exhibition was going to be. True, it was the first to be dedicated to Bronzino s work, bringing together not only the paintings which have their permanent home in Florence, but work from all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Louvre, the Hermitage and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. But that was not all. The exhibition also explored Bronzino the poet, enriching our understanding of the work of Bronzino the artist. It was clear as soon as the exhibition opened in September 2010 that it was going to be one of the cultural highpoints of the Florentine year. Complimenti are due to James Bradburne, the visionary Director of the Palazzo Strozzi, and to the curators for bringing this ambitious project to fruition. In view of the great success of the exhibition, it was a particular privilege for me and the team at the British Institute to welcome Dott. Antonio Natali, Director of the Galleria degli Uffizi and one of the curators, together with distinguished scholars and friends old and new, many of whom had travelled long distances to participate. The Institute s Harold Acton Library, with its unique collection of books and grandstand view over the River Arno, provided an intimate setting for the excellent papers delivered in the course of the day and the stimulating discussion that followed. Speakers shed fresh light on familiar images, provided new insight into Bronzino s iconography, examined different aspects of his portraiture and analysed in detail certain of his works. I am delighted that it has been possible to bring most of the papers together in one volume (others form part of ongoing research to be published at a later date), which I am sure will play an important part in triggering further scholarly discourse on the work of Agnolo Bronzino.

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17 INTRODUCTION ANTONIO NATALI The Bronzino Exhibition a Series of Afterthoughts The Bronzino exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi was a fulfilling experience for the organisers, the curators and, I think I can safely add, for the many visitors who saw it. The remarkable success of the exhibition was, in my opinion, due first and foremost to the lyrical beauty of Bronzino s work. However, in order to understand its full impact one must also take into account the effect on the public who, to put it simply, entered the exhibition with one set of ideas about Bronzino and came out with a very different view. In other words: the majority of the public thought of the painter as an elegant portraitist or a captivating illustrator of religious stories; even though on occasion somewhat cold and distant. This opinion has been (and for many it still is) the result of what is taught about the artist at school, based on an understanding of Bronzino as one of the most sophisticated mannerists. The term is, however, not only inadequate but also misleading. Inadequate, because mannerism has become so abused as a critical formula that it has become almost meaningless. Misleading, because the term reduces the highly poetic quality of this painter s work to little more than a formulaic label. It was the intention of the Florentine exhibition to restore to Bronzino the intellectual and spiritual complexity that underlies his entire artistic expression. The very title of the exhibition recalls the two strands of his career: Bronzino. Pittore e poeta alla corte dei Medici Bronzino: Painter and Poet at the Medici Court. And with this warning the visitors were forced to consider Agnolo s poetry and the substance of his writings. As a result the visitor discovered an artist whose verse worked on two levels: Petrarchian when writing on elevated themes and crude when writing on those of a baser nature. In his erotic poetry the artist clearly showed his lack of prejudice (with regard to both ideas and choice of words). After reading the bawdy poems, all of which are steeped with allusion,

18 xviii Introduction evocation and double meaning: (La cipolla, La padella, Il pennello etc.), it is difficult to look at the paintings in the same light as before. Despite the grace and beauty of the forms displayed on the panels, it was not easy to forget that they had been created by the same artist who had written the lewd, even shameless, verses. And as a consequence, the image of Bronzino based on what we had been taught had to change. At the exhibition it was possible to experience directly one of the qualities with which Bronzino was universally credited in his own times and which has too often been neglected by modern art criticism. Giorgio Vasari (who was a friend of the artist), more than anyone else praised Bronzino s outstanding ability as a painter after nature. This quality made him a favourite of Duke Cosimo de Medici who chose him as his official portraitist and that of his family. Cosimo, however, did not want him solely as an artistic virtuoso able to produce a perfect likeness; he chose him above all for his talent as a poet to lend warmth and character to what can be seen in real life: not just faces, but also fabrics, jewellery, hairstyles together with nature. These qualities can be seen particularly well in his most famous portrait: Duchess Eleonora with her young son Giovanni (Uffizi). A beautiful woman, pale as the moon, illuminating the blue sky behind her with a suffused halo and dominating the entire scene. On her right, at shoulder height, a landscape can be seen, with a river bend and lowgrowing vegetation, lying silently in a corner of the night. This epiphany of nature which might have been painted in another, more recent century, as it seems so modern is the detail that lends poetry and human warmth to the portrait. So the portrait that is considered an icon of sophisticated if icy mannerist style, becomes for our eyes the lyrical ode to a mother, her son and to the affection uniting the two. The exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi has been the first monographic show ever dedicated to Bronzino. The critical theses proposed in the exhibition are now under examination by scholars and scholarly publications that not only test their validity but also formulate new proposals. This volume testifies to the intellectual vitality that can be awakened by an exhibition.

19 CHAPTER ABSTRACTS Chapter 1 Janet Cox-Rearick and Mary Westerman Bulgarella This work-in-progress report presents an extensive research methodology on the paintings of women and girls by the Florentine mannerist artist. A core group of seventeen portraits painted in oil on panel and located in North American and European collections are the subject of this study. The objectives of the research are possibly to identify the sitter of each portrait, confirm its creation to Bronzino or to his workshop, and determine its date of execution based of archival and literary documents. Employing a forensic-style investigation, in consultation with colleagues and experts from a wide range of disciplines, a database of reliable information regarding the portraits to be inspected is now being compiled. Documenting the physical characteristics of the paintings, clarifying their historic context, analysing their subject matter and, in particular, the sitters' mode of attire, are all essential aspects of the research, which will go far beyond a discussion of the visual virtuosity of Bronzino s works. The collaboration between art historians and conservation specialists will add to the meticulous investigative work that is necessary to interpret and comprehend fully the portraits examined, not only singly but also in relation to one another and contemporaneous works of art. This chapter describes the methodology employed in undertaking this project and discusses its progress thus far. Chapter 2 Robert B. Simon Vasari mentions that Bronzino painted a portrait of Maria Salviati, the mother of Duke Cosimo I de Medici. The work usually associated with this reference is a portrait now in the Kress Collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The identification of the subject as Maria Salviati is relatively recent (1960), but has been widely accepted. The attribution to Bronzino is somewhat older, first appearing in 1885, and has not been doubted in the literature since. This essay not only questions the identity of the woman depicted, but also its authorship. The subject is an unidentified widow and the painter, an at-present anonymous contemporary of Bronzino, is provisionally

20 xx Chapter Abstracts named the Master of the Sedia Dantesca, to whom several portraits are here attributed. As for the portrait of Maria Salviati which Vasari records, I propose that it is to be identified with Bronzino s Portrait of a Lady in Red in Frankfurt, with a date of Chapter 3 Andrea M. Gáldy The versatile and prolific Medici court artist Agnolo Bronzino is perhaps best remembered for his portraits of the ducal family. Indeed, several copies of his painted portrait of Duke Cosimo I in armour survive in museums and galleries around the world. The duke s desire for an iconic, official portrait and its wide distribution as a component of foreign diplomacy mimics the dynastic and cultural politics of an ancient Roman role model, specifically Octavian Augustus and his Julio-Claudian successors. This chapter opens with a discussion of the use of portraiture in Rome during the late Republic and early Empire that focuses on the requirements for various portrait types. Cosimo was well informed about the history of the Augustan era and a keen collector of medals and sculpture representing Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus. The duke and his cultural advisors understood the difference between, and importance of, likeness and state portraiture. I argue that Cosimo carefully and successfully exploited these Roman models and typologies when fashioning his own image and that of his Medici dynasty. Chapter 4 Bette Talvacchia Praised by his contemporaries for the range and depth of his artistic achievement, Agnolo Bronzino is still appreciated as a complex creator, capable of elegant inventions in his paintings as well as linguistic fireworks in his poetry. His imagery, however, in verbal and visual media was forcefully connected to the traditions specifically developed in Florentine and Tuscan painting and poetry, and through these idioms to the culture of antiquity. Bronzino was very aware of body imagery in antique models and incorporated many formal and iconographical aspects from the corpus of antique art in his figural types, in both religious and secular paintings. Thus the art of Bronzino is interestingly positioned between the paradigms of ancient masters and evocative references both to his contemporaries and recent predecessors. In certain instances, knowledge of his derivations leads to an enriched understanding of the iconography that Bronzino constructed. Far from being an empty exercise in simply identifying sources, a consideration of the artist s appropriations always

21 Agnolo Bronzino: Medici Court Artist in Context xxi reconsidered and reinvented can uncover rich levels of meaning that Bronzino expected his sophisticated audience to appreciate. My discussion will single out for consideration figures on the ceiling of the Chapel of Eleonora of Toledo in the Palazzo Vecchio and examples of Bronzino s portraiture to explore specific uses of Florentine art and classical sculpture as conceptual bases for the artist s works. Chapter 5 Robert G. La France Many of Agnolo Bronzino s tapestry cartoons of monumental allegorical, devotional, and narrative subjects avoid or minimise some significant tapestry genres of the Renaissance and Middle Ages, including verdures, millefleurs, and courtly scenes with landscapes. In contrast, Bronzino s friend and colleague Francesco Bachiacca contributed cartoons that invoke these traditionally northern European subjects, as well as designs for grotesques, for the conventionally Flemish tapestry medium. I argue that Bronzino s first experiments in the medium engaged in a visual dialogue between Italian and Flemish styles that reflects the cultural mix and eclectic taste of the Florentine court of Duke Cosimo I de Medici and Duchess Eleonora of Toledo. While the recent exhibitions in New York and Florence celebrate Bronzino s art, including tapestries, as distinctly Florentine and Medicean, the first decade of tapestry production in Florence reveals a significant appreciation for northern European art and the cultivation of a variety of styles among members of the pre-vasarian équipe at the hybrid Italo- Hispanic, Medici-Toledo court. Chapter 6 Townsend Zeigler This essay analyses the Descent of Christ into Limbo in terms of its context and contemporary reception in the period between the altarpiece s installation in 1552 and an arbitrary end of the Renaissance period in Damaged in the flood of 1966 and recently restored, Bronzino s altarpiece depicts the apocryphal story of Christ raising certain souls from Limbo to salvation. Bronzino included Old Testament kings, heroes and prophets in the scene and he added vitality and a provocative character to these partially nude biblical worthies with portraits of prominent sixteenthcentury Florentines. Originally located in the Zanchini chapel of Santa Croce and removed in the nineteenth century, the altarpiece was once paired with Salviati s Deposition from the Cross on the church s retrofaçade flanking the main

22 xxii Chapter Abstracts portal. When Vasari renovated Santa Croce in 1565, these two conspicuously positioned works likely generated the template for the church s new wall chapel designs. Despite its contemporary importance, subsequent Counter Reformation theology has tainted responses to Bronzino s Limbo and continues to affect current evaluations of its quality and content. Chapter 7 Robert W. Gaston The chapter offers reflections on some aspects of the two major Bronzino exhibitions (New York and Florence, 2010), looking specifically at methodological issues arising from reviewers' opinions that Bronzino's work is today more accessible than at any time since Mannerism existed. The belief that current postmodernist art practices and theory render Bronzino's work more comprehensible raises questions about Bronzino's attitudes to visual representation, the body, sexuality, poetic satire, style, and political patronage. A balanced position is sought on these issues, recognising that recent theoretical preoccupations can indeed illuminate, to some degree, how we might investigate aspects of sixteenth-century artistic experience either suppressed or neglected by traditional art history. Conversely, it is suggested that we need to study in more detail how our postmodernist categories would have been theorised in Bronzino's day, when, for example, what we call the pseudo-sciences of astrology, palmistry and physiognomy held sway. We cannot, and need not, escape the research paradigms of our own day: the crucial point is, how, as historians, should we apply them in explicating the art of a mid-sixteenth-century Florentine?

23 CHAPTER ONE STYLE AND DRESS: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE FEMALE PORTRAITS BY AGNOLO BRONZINO JANET COX-REARICK AND MARY WESTERMAN BULGARELLA This paper describes the methodology of an in-depth interdisciplinary analysis of all the portraits of women and girls by, or attributed to, Agnolo Bronzino. 1 The research was initiated in an attempt to clarify many of the uncertainties and inaccuracies in discussions of the portraits by this renowned Renaissance artist, including the identities of the women he depicted. Before devising a systematic approach to this research, some preliminary groundwork had to be done. Monographs on Bronzino, museum websites, sale catalogues, periodical literature, and photographic archives, as well as museum and exhibition catalogues such as that of the 2010 Palazzo Strozzi show were looked up. 2 It was also necessary to review and reconsider archival documents that had previously been consulted firsthand, some of which were published in various sources. For the most part, previous research on Bronzino s portraits emphasised their overall composition and style, often with scant attention paid to minute details and to the physical characteristics of the paintings. 1. The presentation in December 2010 was accompanied by an array of visual images which amply illustrated the comparisons of portraits and their details. This written report is limited to an explanation of the methods used to investigate the Bronzino works which are subject of the present study. 2. Falciani and Natali 2010.

24 2 Chapter One Our research soon revealed that there were frequent discrepancies and gaps in published information. Measurements and media were often inconsistent. The attribution of some of these portraits to Bronzino has been a matter of serious contention, and the dating and identifications of sitters have varied widely. Methodology At the outset of our research, we formulated a working list of seventeen portraits, located in public and private collections in North America and Europe, which are traditionally considered to be by Bronzino or his workshop. Nine of these portraits were included in the 2010 Bronzino exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi. Since the research is work in progress, this list will inevitably be subject to change during the course of our investigation. As more data is obtained, the identifications, dating and attributions can vary and additions and/or omissions to the list may occur. Six of the portraits of women by Bronzino that we have been investigating are in Florence (five in the Uffizi and one in Palazzo Vecchio). Three are in Windsor, Frankfurt, and Turin, two are in Washington, one in Cleveland, one in San Francisco, and one in Detroit. The rest are in the European cities of Pisa, Prague and Berlin. None of the portraits are full length; at the most, the sitters are seen to below the knee. The longer format portraits are obviously larger. However, it is interesting to note that some of the paintings that one might imagine to be close in scale in reality are not so at all, as a juxtaposition of them in the same scale illustrates (Fig. 1). In order to determine the physical characteristics and the material structure of each work, they must be examined in situ (preferably off-thewall, unframed, and in a laboratory environment). 3 All the portraits analytical work and documentation such as inventory or registrar descriptions, archival records, photographs, x-rays, infrared reflectograms, condition and conservation reports, etc. need to be consulted and recorded. With the collaboration of curators, conservators and colleagues, all of the necessary records will be obtained in order to have a comprehensive, upto-date set of data for each work. Only then will there be a complete set of data necessary to carry out a comparative analysis of the portraits, which can then lead to conclusions regarding their attribution and date as well as the identity of their sitters. 3. To date we have examined six portraits in laboratory conditions and another nine off-the-wall.

25 Style and Dress 3 Figure 1: The portraits examined in our study, illustrated to scale: A) Cleveland Museum of Art, Young Lady; B) M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, Maria Salviati?; C) Detroit Institute of Arts, Costanza da Sommaia; D) Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Eleonora of Toledo?; E) Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale, Pisa, Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Francesco; F) Národní Galerie, Prague, Eleonora of Toledo; G) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Young Woman with Her Little Boy; H) National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Eleonora of Toledo; I) Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Laura Battiferri; J) Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Eleonora of Toledo; K) Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Lady in a Red Dress with Her Little Dog; L) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Lucrezia Pantiatichi; M) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Bia di Cosimo de Medici; N) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Eleonora of Toledo with Her Son Giovanni; O) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Maria de Medici; P) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Young Girl with Book; Q) Windsor Castle State Apartments, Lady in Green.

26 4 Chapter One To classify the accumulation of data, a spreadsheet format has become a useful tool to record and regularly update information as research progresses. To accompany the spread sheet we have devised an operational system in which each portrait is numbered according to a provisional, approximate chronological order. Included also are the painting s location, title or name of sitter (when known), inventory or accession number, working attribution, measurements, materials and the date(s) when the portrait was examined. A dossier file has been created for each portrait which contains documents of the work-in-progress, notes, photographs and related materials (Fig. 2). Style and Iconography An initial analytical study of Bronzino s portraits was carried out in 2000 while examining those of Duke Cosimo de Medici and his wife, Eleonora of Toledo, whom he married in At that time the focus was on Bronzino s style and iconography, as well as on the garments described in Eleonora of Toledo s wardrobe in the Archivio di Stato in Florence. Of parallel interest was the information retrieved during the conservation of Eleonora s burial attire 4 and the analysis of the damask fabric of a garment in which Eleonora s son, Don Garzia de Medici, was buried. 5 This damask of Don Garzia s costume was found to be identical to that of garments worn by the sitters of Bronzino s Portrait of a Lady in Turin, Galleria Sabauda, and Portrait of a Man in Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada. An extensive research project was carried out on these two particular paintings. In a lengthy article published in 2004 the authors considered them to be a pair and identified the sitters as Eleonora of Toledo and Cosimo de Medici. 6 The examination of the Turin portrait concentrated not only on the fabrics and style of the sitter s clothes, but also on the particulars of her jewellery, including her rings, bracelets, and belt. These details give an indication of the sitter s wealth and status, and possibly of her identity. The belt, in particular, can be linked to the work of Benvenuto Cellini and also, as described and documented in the authors 2004 article, to the Medici court and to Eleonora of Toledo Westerman Bulgarella 2004, ; Aschengreen Piacenti et al Westerman Bulgarella , 2-6; Cox-Rearick and Westerman Bulgarella 2004, Ibid.,

27 Style and Dress 5 Telling Details When Bronzino s portraits are attentively examined, hidden details are revealed which often have not been recorded, studied or interpreted. For example, in the Turin portrait the grinning satyr carved on the chair, barely detectable under the sitter s left elbow, contrasts with the green prayer book she languidly holds in her right hand. As was concluded in our 2004 essay, these contrasting details could be indicative of two sides of the sitter s character and give further clues to her identity. 8 In the same portrait the length of cream-colored organza, striped in green satin and gold (the gold is not visible in every stripe and barely visible to the naked eye) and bordered with green fringe, fills up most of the background space. This opulent and delicate fabric is a lavish demonstration of Bronzino s artistic virtuosity and is an unusual feature that was clearly staged for the portrait. Both the Turin and Ottawa portraits were in the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition, although with different identifications of the sitters, 9 which reinforces the conviction that there is still much work to be done. Two more portraits by Bronzino were examined in situ during the summer of The Cleveland Museum of Art owns an important portrait of a woman, which has not been illustrated frequently or described in the Bronzino literature. The only extensive description and analysis was published in 1974, the painting was labelled by the museum simply as Young Lady. 10 Throughout our two-day visit, the curator of the European paintings department, Jon Seydl, and the museum s paintings conservator, Dean Yoder, assisted us in every way possible and made available all the museum s documents of the painting. An area was set aside in the museum s conservation laboratory where the painting could be thoroughly and accurately examined, measured and photographed. 8. Ibid., Falciani and Natali 2010, Tzeutschler Lurie 1974, 3-13.

28 6 Chapter One LOCATION TITLE OR NAME OF SITTER A Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland B De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco C Detroit Institute of the Arts, Detroit D Galleria Sabauda, Turin E Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Reale, Pisa F Národní Galerie, Prague G National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. H National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Young Lady with a Glove c Elderly Woman (Maria c Salviati?) 43 DATE INVENTORY/ ACCESSION NR ATTRIBUTION MEASUREMENTS MATERIALS SHOWN 2010 Accession No Bronzino 60 x 46.8 cm oil on panel no Kress Collection inv. K61 Bronzino (?) 127 x 100 cm oil on panel no Costanza da Sommaia c Accession No.35.8 Bronzino 43.5 x 30.3 cm oil on panel no Eleonora of c Toledo (?) 55 inv.262 Bronzino 109 x 85 cm oil on panel yes Eleonora of Toledo with her Son Bronzino Francesco c workshop? 116 x 94 cm oil on panel no Eleonora of Toledo c inv. DO-880 Bronzino 59 x 46 cm oil on panel no Lady with her Little Boy c Eleonora of Toledo c Widener Collection Bronzino 99.5 x 76 cm oil on panel no Samuel H. Kress Collection Bronzino 86.4 x 65.1 cm oil on panel no

29 Style and Dress 7 I Palazzo Vecchio, Florence J Staatliche Museen, Berlin K Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt L Uffizi Gallery, Florence M Uffizi Gallery, Florence N Uffizi Gallery, Florence O Uffizi Gallery, Florence P Uffizi Gallery, Florence Q Windsor Castle State Apartments, Windsor Laura Battiferri c Eleonora of Toledo c inv.338b Lady in Red with a Little Dog c inv.1136 Lucrezia Panciatichi c Bia de Medici or later Eleonora of Toledo and her Son Giovanni 1545 Maria de Medici 1551 Girl Holding a Prayer Book c Donazione Loeser inv. MCF-LOE Signed 83 x 60 cm oil on panel yes Bronzino workshop? 58 x 42 cm oil on panel no Pontormo or Bronzino cm mixed on poplar yes Uffizi inv.1890 no.736 Signed 102 x 85 cm oil on panel yes Uffizi inv.1890 no.1472 Bronzino 63 x 48 cm oil on panel yes Uffizi inv.1890 no.748 Bronzino 115 x 96 cm oil on panel yes Uffizi inv.1890 no.1572 Doc. 1551, and inv x 38 cm oil on panel yes Uffizi inv.1890 no.770 Bronzino 58 x 46 cm oil on panel yes Lady in Green c RCIN Bronzino (?) 76.6 x 66.2 cm oil on poplar yes Figure 2: Table of portraits investigated based on project spreadsheet and dossier files.

30 8 Chapter One Figure 3: A) Národní Galerie, Prague, Eleonora of Toledo; B) Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Young Girl with a Book; C) Cleveland Museum of Art, Young Lady. The pose and style of the Cleveland portrait places it easily in the sequence of Bronzino s half-length female portraits from 1540 to the early 50s (Fig. 3). Details of the young sitter s face exemplify Bronzino s meticulous depiction of facial features. Sometimes the artist made slight modifications or pentimenti, one of which is visible on the right side of her